Sunday, 20 March 2016

Sussex CAMRA beer festival 2016

Last weekend saw the
26th Sussex CAMRA branches beer festival at Brighton’s Corn
Exchange. Here are some thoughts on my experience of the festival and the beers
I drank.

The beer

With over 170 beers at this year’s festival, the 13 mild
ales on offer might not seem much. But I’d all but declared mild extinct in
this part of the country - admittedly, many of the examples here are from
further afield (further North), but there’s a certain type of beer geek that’s
inexplicably drawn to such unfashionable styles, and I’d proudly count myself
among them – so 13 milds in one room is pretty exciting to me.

That said, I drank only a few as there were so many other
beers I wanted to try, but they were all very tasty and extremely moreish (mild
isn't best suited to third-of-a-pint servings) and helped clarify my idea on
what mild means. First was Leeds’ Midnight Bell, an elegant beer with a lightly roasty malt backbone and some
earthy, vegetal hops adding depth. The hoppy bitterness is bigger than I
expected from the style, possibly due to the unusual addition of Willamette
hops. Kissingate’s Black Cherry Mild
is, obviously, also atypical, though it does have a similar light roasty
foundation. It’s too sweet for my tastes, although it does taste like real
cherries rather than a sticky, syrupy synthetic flavouring. Arundel’s Black Stallion , a mild that
actually does hail from Sussex (though they seem reluctant to refer to it this way), was
another solid offering, and I really hope I get to become properly equated with
a few pints of it some time. Finally, Summer Wine’s Resistance was the best of the bunch - beautifully balanced between
sweet toffee-like malt and bitter hops, with a hint of vanilla adding depth.
I've unjustly ignored this brewery for no good reason for too long, and I’ve
clearly been a fool.

Stewart’s 80/, a
Scotch ale, isn't so different to some of these milds – a little sweeter with
next to no discernible hop bitterness, it’s a big, soft, fluffy, malty comfort
blanket of a beer. Brighton Bier’s Freshman, an IPA in the Vermont style, is at the other end of the spectrum –
super pale malts imparting as little character as possible, accentuating the
big, juicy hop hit I’ve come to expect from this brewery. It’s all about hop
aroma and flavour, and bitterness is consequently low – it’s exactly the kind of
IPA I love, and Brighton Bier’s most accomplished beer yet.

There was also plenty to appeal to fans of smoked beer like
myself. Gun Brewery, from Heathfield
in East Sussex, have often impressed me, and the new Smoked Rye they've brought with them is excellent – an authentic
swirl of Bamberg-style smoke, with a wonderful herb-like finish recalling oregano
and rosemary.Langham’s Aegir porter
also brings a hefty dose of smoke, alongside a smooth, slightly sweet malt
character. Brigid Fire from Celt Experience is a smoked rye IPA
that slightly disappoints in the smoke department, and doesn't present itself
as particularly hoppy either. Its interesting feature for me is the bierre de garde yeast, which imparts the
kind of honeyed sweetness you find in a beer like 3 Monts, or the marzipan
character of Jenlain Ambrée. It’s a complex beer that I pondered carefully with
every sip.

And finally, some big hitters. Hammerpot’s Baltic porter was smooth and full bodied, with a rich
tang suggesting port wine. Kissingate’s Murder of Crows was my undisputed highlight of the festival - a huge, double-mashed imperial stout,
reportedly aged for a year before release. It’s rich and sweet with muscovado
sugar and clementine flavours, but also slightly tart and tangy, resulting in a
balsamic sweet and sour character reminiscent of a Flanders Red. It’s a very
special beer, and one you absolutely must order if you’re lucky enough to see
it out in the wild.

Alongside some great beers, the event was well organised –
all beers in tip-top condition, very few not ready in time for the opening
session – and the volunteers were great, everyone enthusiastic and friendly.

Room for improvement

There’s definitely room for improvement, though. I’d love to
see the introduction of key kegs (as per the recent CAMRA festival in Manchester), especially as increasing numbers of local
breweries are beginning to experiment more with kegged beers. Although I was
happy to stand throughout the session and saw plenty of free seats, it’s a
shame the seating has to be tucked away around the edges of the room, isolated from the atmosphere of the festival, and seats with tables would be especially practical. I accept
that this is a necessary compromise given the space available at the Corn
Exchange, and the choice of venue may well explain my other complaint – the food.

The food is, I think, provided by the venue’s in-house
catering, and it’s possible that they won’t let the festival bring in outside
food vendors, although that wouldn't make much sense considering they’re bring
in hundreds of casks of beer from outside. Most of it looked fine, but the
festival website and programme both promised vegetarian and vegan options. When
I asked about the vegetarian option, I was given a choice of a cheese and onion
pasty or chips. The pasty offering was a bit crap, but consigning any vegans to
nothing but a plate of chips is just an insult, and especially annoying since
it would have taken very little effort to knock up a vegan alternative to the
food that was already there – a vegetable chilli alongside the meaty
equivalent, vegan sausages (which are available in pretty much any supermarket)
for hot dogs. Don’t claim to cater to dietary requirements if you can’t be
bothered to do it properly, or even better, ask one of the innumerable
vegan-friendly food businesses in Brighton to do it for you.

Whilst it’s not the CAMRA festival’s fault, it’s a shame
that so many beer events in the city coincided in such a short space of time.
Tiny Rebel’s ‘town takeover’ at various pubs across the city overlapped, and
the Thursday night session that I attended clashed with a Siren tap
takeover/meet the brewer event at Craft Beer Co. BrewDog Brighton also
organised a Sussex keg beer event which I’d have been keen to check out if it
wasn't for their continualchildish CAMRA baiting in promoting it – there are
plenty of us who like cask and keg
beer and don’t drink the BrewDog Kool-Aid any more than we pay regard to the
conservative faction of CAMRA, so why alienate these drinkers?

Several of these events stretched across the whole weekend
if not longer, so in theory interested parties could have attended all of them.
But if, as in my case, time and money are limited resources, this isn’t
realistic. A little forward planning would benefit everyone.

1 comment:

Fantastic Beer Fest!! I am longing to taste these amazing beers. Just got to know about a beer tasting event planned at a local Chicago event space next month. Will certainly attend this. Hoping to taste some awesome wines.